Uno Doesn't Mean Alone
by SaSaSaShika
Summary: Uno is left at the hands of the Hyuugas after Neji's death. Benten Higurashi notices her mistreatment and ends up leading her home. But why does he take so kindly to her and what is their secret? not a pairing, some cussing, OC and canon char.


"Nobody can make me back down."

"I can think of many ways to prove that statement wrong. Would you like to feel the power I may exert over you at any given moment?" The elder hissed agitatedly.

I smiled a warm, but poison-laced smile. "I know that this symbol stands for the honor my father sacrificed to save another member of his clan even though they had egregiously mistreated him when he was under their care. I wear this proudly because it was something my father thought was good enough to risk his life for, and I wear this to prove to everybody that I am not ashamed of who I am, because I am not ashamed of who my father was. He was an honorable man. So, even if you decide that my punishment for wearing the symbol of the legacy I must carry on, one that you yourself invented, then by all means use it against me. But nothing you say or do will make me cover the mark of who I am and who my father was, because he deserves better than that."

The man snarled in anger, and activated my Caged Bird Seal. It burned so very bad, and it trapped my mind and held my chakra in a stranglehold that was not there before. I found myself falling to my knees under the pain of it all and landing sideways. He concentrated on my chakra and squeezed it, squeezed it until I thought it would burst.

I screamed with all the force I had. Nobody could possibly understand the pain that the seal activated. Nobody understood the true meaning behind what it was like to _be_ in pain until they were under this jutsu. I kept screaming until he released his hold on my chakra and released the jutsu.

I panted while I lay on the ground. I was nearly unconscious, I couldn't really feel anything. I just felt the tightness like it was still there and I felt like I was trapped inside my head.

"Come, now child. You're drooling," he said maliciously. "You are too proud for your own good. A member of the branch house does not deserve to be proud inside their home walls. They should remain humble and practice humility." He stepped over by my head and said in a soft voice, "Your father was weak and disrespectful. He was whiny and an attention-seeking cretin who died because he was not proficient enough to complete a jutsu some of our younger members are capable of." He didn't mention that the only two members of the Hyuuga clan that could do those things were him and his cousin, Hanabi.

A voice from behind him spoke up. "Do you usually punish with curse mark jutsus and belittling lectures? If that is the case, I wouldn't be surprised that so many of you are stiff sticks in the mud."

The elder whipped around to face the man who had spoken. The man stepped out from behind a round, traditionally designed archway in a wall behind the old man. He was nearly a head taller than the elder himself, and twice as wide in the shoulders. He wore a light brown traditional vest and clay red traditional pants. His ninja shoes left at his home, he wore flat peasant sandals, yet kept his ninja fanny pack and a scroll tied around his left leg instead of a shuriken pouch.

"This is none of your business, Higurashi-sama. The disciplining of our young is left to us, as yours is for you."

"I have no doubt that I may not punish members outside of my own clan, Elder-sama, but it is not outside my bounds to tell you that I think you are being a bit rough," Benten Higurashi stated. "You may not realize this, but a stern word or two here and there usually sets things straight. She hasn't done anything to deserve a violent use of her seal, now has she?"

The angry elder stiffened. His grey eyes blazed, but they had little effect on the man, as he had had many dealings with the easily offended Hyuugas in the past. "She was being disrespectful. As I told her, branch members have no purpose putting themselves over the main branch families, however important they thought their parents were," he sniffed at the girl at his feet in disdain. I had sat up and was trying to stand.

When the man looked at me I glared at him, then turned my head away.

"Are you going to make it, kid?" He asked.

"Of course," I snapped. "I am a Hyuuga. Do not insult me by thinking that I cannot overcome such a little obstacle as this."

"Small, was it?" The elder asked. "Is that all it was; a pesky burden put on you that has now left its effects behind in your mind?" He was snarling and frothing on the inside, but outwardly he was deadly calm.

I looked at the ground as I kneeled. "No, Elder-sama. Please excuse me for my behavior, I will ensure that it will not happen again." I grit my teeth and was thankful I was looking at the ground so he would not see my glare. How dare he speak of my father in that way!

The rage at his commentary stung to a place my heart didn't even know it had. I had been scorned by nearly every member of this clan and I had regarded it as a slight I would eventually overcome one day by becoming a great and powerful member of this clan. But this part of my heart screamed at the injustice of it, and I stood quickly. Ignoring the swirling my stomach gave, I turned my eyes to the ignorant elder.

"You know what? Never mind. I hate you. I hate everything you stand for. I hate your disgusting, pig face and your obnoxious, grating voice, and most importantly, I hate your hypocritical, bigoted ways and your perverse attitude towards every member of the branch house. You are a liar, too! My father was a great man and if you're so _proud _of this house, then how can you disrespect two-thirds of it? Even if he was a side branch member of the family, he was still your family, and he was a great and outstanding ninja! So don't tell me he was a brat! Do not tell me he was an attention-seeking cretin! He was ten times a man than you will ever be and his memory shall be preserved with honor, and you can be certain that nobody will ever love and respect and honor you as much as I do my father!" Near the end I started screaming. I was attracting a crowd other than the Higurashi clan head.

"Caged Bird Seal!" he screamed back at me.

Once again I was in my head with a noose around my neck and a net holding my chakra. I couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, couldn't access my chakra, and couldn't control what my body did. When I came to, my body was curled in a ball with my nails digging into my forehead. I was nauseous. I took my hands from my head and noted the blood dripping from them. Time for a cutting.

I looked up but saw no one above me. Normally they stood over you to make sure you understood it was them that could hurt you. I uncurled myself and waited for the nausea to go away.

"Let…go…of me," somebody said. I slowly turned my head to see Higurashi Benten holding the elder's left hand away from his body and his right hand behind his back. The world swam a little. I think I turned green.

"I cannot allow such behavior to continue in my presence. Are there not other ways to punish the kid?" Higurashi-sama asked.

"I will discipline as I see fit. Now again, release me."

"No."

"Now!"

Before the struggle could escalate any further the leader of our clan, my great uncle Hiashi stepped into the scene. He put one hand on the elder's left arm and the other hand on the other clan leader's arm. Benten let go and the elder did not move except to pull his right arm down to his side.

"Elder Matsuro* and Higurashi-sama, though it is usually a pleasure to see you I must admit that I find the circumstances in which I find you now to be less than ideal. Tell me, how did this happen?" He nodded to Benten to speak first.

"I must say, now that it is all said and done, I find myself feeling a bit foolish. Perhaps if I had called for assistance earlier or asked another member for their council this wouldn't have happened. I was on my way to see you for our appointment, and I chanced upon you elder punishing that girl. I told him that it was counterproductive to teach her a lesson like that because reprimanding with words does the trick more often than not. He disagreed with me. Then she…uh...heheh, well, she spoke up about some unkind words the elder must have shared with her and he used the seal again. I truly do not think that was the best way to handle the situation, so I stopped him."

"Ah," the elder said. "And, Elder Matsuro, do you agree with the account of what has happened here today?"

"I do," stated the disgruntled elder, still having his forearm held in his clan leader's grip. "With one exception."

"Enlighten me as to what this exception is," said the controlled elder. His voice sounded normal to everybody else, but to Elder Matsuro and Benten, he was getting angry.

"Uno here decided to speak out against me in the most elementarily rude ways. As a member of the main branch house overseeing her antics, I decided to punish her as I saw fit and as my predecessors had deemed fit. Might I ask if you deem that unfit, Hiashi-sama?"

My great-uncle sighed as if the burden of the world was on his shoulders.

"Uno has been a problem for a while here. I do not believe the attack was unprovoked. Severe, maybe, but not unprovoked. Higurashi-sama, as callous as this may seem to you, this is how we put the side branch members in line. Please tell me you understand that."

"Oh I understand it. If that had been me, I wouldn't have stood for it either. Any younger member of a clan should be taught to respect their elders. But I do not believe her verbal attack on him was unprovoked either. This Hyuuga thinks it is good to belittle the dead. Neji must be turning in his grave. A leader of his clan calling him names and belittling his daughter who had only stood up for the honor I am sure her father had earned a hundred-fold. Seemed silly to me for her not to respect her father, as we are all taught to do, and defend his honor when he is not here to do so himself. Unfortunately, I can see my opinion holds little sway here. I will be returning home now." Benten growled.

"No, Higurashi-sama," Leader-sama said. "Please do not leave my house in anger. I am willing to give you a decision in a way to punish Elder Matsuro for upsetting you so grievously. But please, do not think of my house as ungrateful of you for taking time out of you day then turning you out as soon as you had come. If elder Matsuro here heard you say to stop, then he should have stopped, or taken his punishment elsewhere."

"I apologize for disrupting your activities here. I will stay if that is what you wish. I did come for an appointment and I expect that to be carried out. I ask that he not be punished further than leaving this child be. It seems there is some bad blood between her father and him. Find somebody else to supervise her when she gets in trouble."

"As you wish, Higurashi-sama. Elder, you have heard the verdict passed on you today. Leave and find somewhere else to be. It would be most wise to never disgruntle another prominent figure again. See that it doesn't," Hiashi said.

"Yes Hiashi-sama," was all the man said in reply. He was released and shushinned to a spot unknown to either clan heads.

"I am truly sorry for that display. It won't happen again."

Benten didn't reply.

"Shall we?" He said, motioning to the Hyuuga mansion.

"I request that the girl, Uno, join us."

Hiashi was surprised. His long time acquaintance was a soft-spoken individual. He did not demand things of anybody unless he had to, and during his visits he even asked for basic amenities, like the toilet and tea. It seemed he was upset by his demanding side he had never shown before.

"Of course." He turned to me. I was following the conversation but still trying not to puke.

"Uno, stand. We will be going to my formal meeting room. If you fall behind, meet us there." I nodded.

"No, she will be coming _with_ us. I got her." He held his giant hand out to me. I glared and slowly stood on my own. I saw him shake his head from the corner of my eye but I stared at Hiashi's shoulder.

"I am fit to follow."

When we reached his inner business office I was directed to a seat in the middle on the long side of a traditional low-set table. They took their place that the ends.

"Firstly," Higurashi Benten started, "I am shocked at how you treat your clan members. How could you allow anybody to activate that seal for anything less than treason? What is the purpose? And don't tell me that whole 'keeping the dojutsu from the enemies' bull that Hizashi gave me when we were kids. I am not stupid. It is clearly a means of keeping _more than half_ of your clan as puppets-slaves even!"

Hiashi was quiet as Benten steamed. _How could anybody presume that, _he thought. _Well, he always was very bright. For all his niceness and silence, he is more perceptive than I have given him credit for. It has been too long since the time I thought it was little more than a slaves' shackle. Not since before Hizashi died, if I remember correctly. _His eyes flicked from his hands on the table to Benten's eyes. Out loud he said, "I think… that your world views are much softer than ours, Higurashi-sama. We have believed that we needed to force our members to be more than what they really are, and some would claim we do it for the sake of appearances. I think that, as a whole, our family acts the way it does out of shame. Natsudo Hyuuga, my father, saw it fit as soon as he saw my mother deliver my twin brother. He felt that there would be corruption, like there was within the Uchiha clan. He invented the seal and placed it on my brother's brow when he was just one year of age. But he felt shame in his actions, for he had marked a baby and that mark would lead him to live a life of _less._ Less importance, less power, and less necessity within the world. Father felt shame in his actions, so to justify them, as he couldn't take it off; he took members of the clan who couldn't trace their lineages back as far as the original Hyuugas. It was a ridiculous practice, but he saw it fit, and applied it to as many as he could. Then he held it over everybody's head as clan leader, saying it was his decision to make, and that there were stirrings of a rebellion that he was not afraid to crush. Most accepted it. Those who didn't are not here today. He died soon after Hizashi died, and I believe that, too, was from shame. Because it was he who had created the seal, it was he who had to justify his atrocious act by placing it on other members of our clan, and he who created the rift the clan holds now because he was so deep in his shame he could not get out. He thought creating graves for everyone else out of shame might level the ground for him some, but it did not. Instead, he got killed by his decision. I think that the curse mark has to remain, however."

"And what," Benten asked disbelievingly, "makes you come to that conclusion?"

"The fact that it was how many here expects things to be. And what would happen if the majority of my clan decided to rise up? The rest would be crushed."

"And that is your reason for doing this? Ridiculous," Benten stated. "I know the real reason, it is because you could have stopped it as soon as you became clan head, but instead you didn't. I know your mother was pro-one united family. It's not like you would have encountered much resistance. What is your excuse, Hyuuga?" He made it sound like a cuss word.

"I think…" Hiashi trailed off. "I think I enjoyed rubbing my control in my brother's face. He was ten times the man I will ever be, and he was better at everything that we did, simply because he felt he had to prove himself to everybody, and I did not. I was jealous and he was a better man than I, and I let him down. He was such a good man that he took my place when Cloud ninja demanded retribution for us killing one of their own. That was the only good thing that came out of this mess- our kekkai genkai not falling into the wrong hands. At least father's excuse was justified once in a long string of wrongs it created."

There was silence all around for a few minutes. I digested all that I had heard, and it shocked me. I now knew the reasons behind this seal.

"You mean that both my father and my grandfather wasted their lives protecting a mistake that shouldn't have even existed, if it weren't for the fact that my great-grandfather was too ashamed to stop? That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. My father died protecting this clan, and for what: a old complaining windbag blowing his legacy beneath him and leaving me behind when he could have stayed! And you-!" I whirled on the elder. "You could have stopped it! You could have kept it from spreading like an infectious disease but you were too prideful to fix it. My father is DEAD because of you! Dead- and I'm never going to get him back!" I stood up tall and glared at my great-uncle with the heat of a thousand suns. "You are a monster- you're no better than the youngest, weakest, stupidest peasant. You are a coward and have no right being in a place of power!"

He stood immediately and accidentally activated his kekkai genkai he was so furious. "Don't you DARE presume that you may get away with speaking to me in that way. I am no such thing and you had best hold your tongue. I was placed here because I was the best person sited for leading this clan and so the power passed on to me. You have no idea of the things you speak of." He returned my glare.

"If you were best suited to take care of this clan, then maybe I do not wish to belong to such a sullied house any longer. Because of you my father is dead and because of the stupidity of your father, my grandfather suffered his entire life! I am no longer part of such a corrupt clan and will not stand for any more injustice at the hands of the Hyuuga clan. I hereby banish myself and declare myself Uno, daughter of Neji, daughter of none." With that, I turned and left the room in a wave of anger that surely was unmatched by any ninja before me.

*Elder matsuro is a total OC, but based off an elder I saw in a Naruto wiki thing


End file.
